Chapter 14. R&R. It's time to tie up some loose ends…. And get this arc started!
"Sanzluz." Amy said, bored. A ball of darkness fired out of Luna's hand, at a mamodo that looked like a top. The mountainous terrain fit quite nicely, as it boxed them in, making Luna's quick and powerful spells nearly impossible to dodge. The top mamodo had a clearly distraught female book owner with deep blue hair and a bluish-green book. The top mamodo was tossed and spun around while Luna and Amy looked around, very bored.
"Ruota! Please don't leave me!" The girl cried, now on her knees.
"Stop hurting him!" The woman begged. Luna had a devilish smile on her face and let out a snicker. Amy looked at Luna and opened the shining book, ready to cast. The book owner of Ruota looked up, and opened her book as well.
"Rotone!" She cast, as Ruota went spinning toward Luna. The girl mamodo scoffed and raised her hand. Ruota came clashing with her hand, but Luna was much more powerful. Ruota spun, leaving red burn marks on Luna's marred hands, but she only grunted. Soon, the top mamodo stopped spinning. Luna picked him up, and through him against a boulder. The female book owner gasped.
"How… can she still have that much strength? Humph. Oru Girotone!" She yelled, catching her breath. Ruota spun around Luna in a clockwise motion, soon creating a vortex of wind around her. Luna was obviously unfazed.
"Dioga Gugirotone!" She yelled quickly afterward. The vortex had trapped Luna, and the top mamodo—who was now a drill—was about to go straight to Luna! She scoffed again. Luna held up the number four with her fingers, and Amy nodded.
"Gigano Luzhield!" Amy cast in reply. A ball of light appeared out of Luna's right hand, and it absorbed the vortex, along with Ruota! The ball of light imploded on itself, leaving a battered and torn Ruota balancing in place of the spell. The female book owner was at her wit's end.
"Raina…" The top mamodo managed, "I don't care if I go. You've been brave, which is something I can't say for them." Ruota said, tired. Raina, the book owner, laughed through her tears.
"You won't go. Not yet you won't." She replied. Amy yawned, a bit annoyed at Ruota's last comment.
"Can we stop this love fest and burn their freakin' book already? I'm getting tired of this crap." Amy replied, opening the book with anger. Luna ignored her, and walked up to Ruota, and picked him up by what looked like his throat.
"I didn't come here for you. I came here because I felt a powerful energy around here. What's going on?" Luna asked menacingly, as Amy walked over to subdue Raina. Ruota let out a small, weak laugh.
"There's a mansion… not too far from here… a group of mamodo is inside… there are a lot… I tried to face them… I was too weak." Ruota blurted out as best as he could.
"I already know you're weak." Luna said, putting him down. Ruota took a deep breath, and started again.
"I'm not a threat. Don't hurt me." He said. Luna laughed.
"You might not be a threat, but you're a nuisance. Nuisances, in my opinion, are worse than threats." Luna said in reply. She walked over to Raina and grabbed the book. Ruota took a defeated last look at his book still intact.
"Lunaluz."
Meanwhile…
It was hard to sneak back unto the premises of Ramon's castle, since it was on high alert after Hawke, Correre and Multos's escapade with Bane. They had gotten to meet some of the other teams like Correre and Shu. Correre, it seemed, was some sort of dog/horse hybrid with a bent horn. Shu, however, was much more interesting. That mamodo was from royalty, although a bit of a braggart about it. They were a much more tight-knit group, working together to eliminate cameras and sneak around corners and whatnot. They had found their way into the first stairway chamber, and were in for a great surprise. Alex, Shu's book owner, was inspecting the area when he came upon a strange area with some runes on the wall. He placed his hand on it.
"Crap! Duh!" Alex cried in pain. The six mamodo filed up alongside him. Multos tried to push back the crowd.
"You shouldn't have touched that!" He yelled. Suddenly, all the runes shifted to the sides of the wall, and the door to the stair disappeared, while another materialized next to it. Out if the door came two mamodo teams.
"It's Saturn and Celeste! Thank goodness!" Multos wiped some sweat off his brow.
"Gistar!" The male book owner yelled. Celeste, a brunette with a shooting star design on her dress, fired a star of light from her hand toward Multos.
"Orbusu!" The female owner of Saturn yelled. A colorfully designed orb started to surround the six mamodo, pounding them occasionally. Both of the attacks hit successfully. The book owners couldn't react very quickly, and the following retaliation was just chaos. Here and there, people were casting spells, and spells aimed toward the two agents of Ramon hit instead those affiliated with Alan. In fact, Saturn and Celeste just stood there and watched. It was actually very amusing.
"Gifiaterr Ikaterr!"
"Giga Azurio!"
"Buron Braidon!"
"Dobla!"
"Sodo Miiruk!"
"Chikelga!" Spells flew from every direction, as Anna, Alex, Jay, Dun, Chikushou and Josh cast. It seemed that the only ones not casting spells were Saturn and Celeste. A small chuckle could be heard in the gathering dust. After a few minutes, all six mamodo appeared, battered and bruised. Saturn, Celeste and their book owners were covered with what seemed to be the fiery path of a small meteorite, which swirled around them. Soon, it disappeared, revealing the four of them holding hands.
"It will take a lot more than your disorganized, rag-tag group to defeat us." Saturn said, with a stern look on his face.
"What's wrong with you, Saturn? I though you were gonna help us." Multos said, quite confused.
"I have more important things to worry about than you, I've got Celeste, this competition; I've got my hands full without you coming up with this insane rebellion scheme." Saturn said.
"Di Orbusu!" Saturn's female book owner yelled. Two colorful orbs now started to orbit around the twelve of them.
"What the heck is this?" Jyan asked. He reached for the orb.
It didn't end well.
Suddenly, both of the orbs became a blood red color, and fired a beam at Jyan. Soon, he was bouncing all over the room trying to dodge the lasers it was firing. After a few minutes of jumping from wall to wall, he stopped, and lay defeated on the floor. "Those things are really determined." He puffed. He was getting ready to get hit by a laser, when all of a sudden, it became deathly quiet.
"You idiots haven't come across a lot of mamodo, have you?" Saturn asked. He signaled his female partner, and she opened the book.
"Gia Orbusuga!" She yelled. A shower of meteorites started crashing down from the ceiling. But a few thought fast enough to defend themselves.
"Miiruk!"
"Braidshield"
"Soriano!"
"Rachishiru!"
The spells rang out. The sudden movement provoked the laser balls, and they started firing with the meteorites. The first spell to break was Braidshield, then Miiruk, then Shu's Soriano, and finally Jyan's Rachishiru, which deflected a few of the meteorites. It did little damage to Celeste and Saturn themselves. "Are you so weak that you can't defend two of my spells with four of yours? Does that mean I'm twice as strong as all of you? It would be such a pity for your rebellion to end right here." Saturn faltered a bit at the end. It seemed more like a request then a statement.
"One more time, Laura." Saturn said, holding on to Celeste tightly. She nodded.
"Gia Orbusuga!" And there were those meteorites. But it seemed less powerful, and more concentrated. It was aimed straight for Multos. A single, huge meteorite was headed toward Multos with the power of the entire onslaught. And then, all of a sudden, that huge hurtling meteor came to a standstill.
It was Correre. The dog-horse hybrid mamodo with a horn. He was blocking the attack. "Gifiaterr Ikaterr!" Anna, the book owner, cast. Correre started spinning, he was on fire (literally!). After a long and grueling battle, the meteorite split into two pieces of molten rock. Saturn stood there, astounded. He shut his gaping mouth, took a deep breath, and began to speak.
"I saw loyalty in the eyes of that dog-thing. Now I see why Ramon wants an army of his own. I would give my life for something as precious as that. It's a good thing I don't have to." Saturn said.
"But, truthfully, I'm surprised at the power of this rag-tag group. I thought this was going to be me burning books one by one. But I see it's going to be different. Now you've inspired us to go all out; prepare to see the mamodo world again." Saturn ended. He was getting ready to signal his book owner for the finishing blow, but Celeste stopped him.
"Stop. Just stop! What's the point of burning ourselves out and getting our books burned for that tyrant Ramon? It'd be much more intelligent to join them and stay in the battle." Celeste begged. Saturn was still in the process of giving the motion to burn their books, but was thinking over what Celeste had said. Before he could make a decision though, a door appeared near the ceiling, and Ramon walked out of it. He looked down at Celeste and Saturn.
"May I decide that for you?" He asked. His book owner, Demetra, appeared next to him and started to cast.
"Oru Royaruk!" Ramon yelled. The royal teen held out his hand, and a huge emerald appeared, spinning at high speeds. He fired it straight at Saturn.
It was a split second for all this to happen, but Celeste pushed Saturn behind her, and jumped straight into the spell! It was drilling into her stomach, and she had a horrible look on her face. The emerald just kept spinning, but her book owner couldn't sit and watch. "Gia Gistar!" He cast. Celeste put her hands on the emerald, and it exploded. Shards of the emerald and tongues of fire were spread throughout the room and Celeste's book owner just laid there, defeated. The book was burning. Saturn ran up to Celeste, but she was unconscious. He brushed her bloodied hair until she disappeared. After a few moments, he turned to Ramon, and signaled his partner.
"Gia Orbusuga!" She yelled, as Saturn fired meteorites at where Ramon was. But it was too late. The door was closed, and the spell simply collided with the wall and disappeared. Then he turned to Alan and Jay.
"I can't carry out my promise like this." He said. He went over to Laura, pulled the book away from her, and through it into Alan's stomach.
"Burn it." He said simply. The entire group was astounded. They were going to argue about it, but Saturn looked very serious and stern about it.
"Well? What are you waiting for, an invitation?" He asked. Jay looked at Saturn and sighed.
"Buron Braidon!" He cast. The book lay on the ground, flipping through it's glowing pages. The disappearing Saturn walked up to the runes on the wall and touched them. The stairway to the catacombs reappeared.
"Now you have to defeat Ramon. I know that when one of you becomes king, I want you to ignore the tribal rules. Celeste and I are from warring tribes, and really aren't supposed to be together. Can you promise me that?" Saturn asked. Alan could just manage a 'yes' before Saturn disappeared. Suddenly, Correre barked.
"Wait. He senses something." Anna said. Correre barked twice. The final bark turned into a howl halfway through.
"There's two mamodo. I think that he knows one of them. But the other is really strong." Anna translated.
"Well, one of them is probably Hawke. But I think we should keep moving, in case the other one isn't friendly." Alan said. The group agreed, and they filed down the steps, as darkness filled the corridor.
Meanwhile…
There were rocks falling in the catacombs. Chrysanthemum could here a battle going on upstairs. She brushed away a light blue lock of hair. She was in a battle too, with a friend of hers; Lon. But it wasn't her idea. Ramon was watching, forcing them to fight. "I hope that's Multos up there!" She said to her book owner, Anthony.
"Silence, or I'll burn both your books." Ramon said, watching from a distance.
Meanwhile…
Hawke was flying in on the castle, when he noticed someone walking toward it. The persons looked familiar… but it didn't sit right with him to land and talk to them. There was something wrong about them. "Why don't you come down here, Hawke, traitor!" He recognized that voice.
It was Luna!
(End of Chapter 14: 87 Mamodo left)
I'm sorry for not getting this chapter in sooner, as it says in my profile; I have a broken arm (thankfully my left!) so it takes me a LONG time to write. R&R!